students from the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf & Blind will visit the NASA facility in Fairmont as part of a kickoff in support of students’ new competitive robotics, rocketry, and aerial drone teams.
Relaunching the robotics teams at the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind is about to get a boost.
The NASA Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Program’s Education Resource Center (ERC) will welcome students from the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf & Blind (WVSDB) this weekend as part of a kickoff in support of students’ new competitive robotics, rocketry, and aerial drone teams.
WVSDB students and their new STEM coaches will visit the Katherine Johnson Facility in Fairmont Saturday for a series of hands-on workshops where they will build and launch model rockets, assemble and program robots, and learn to pilot and program aerial drones.
“The NASA ERC has a long tradition of supporting robotics teams at the WVSDB, but sadly, many after-school initiatives were another casualty of the COVID-19 crisis,” said NASA ERC Program Manager Dr. Todd Ensign in a press release. “We are excited to be collaborating with WVSDB Superintendent W. Clayton Burch and the new coaches to not only restart, but also to expand competitive STEM opportunities for their students.”
West Virginia University’s robotics team “Team Mountaineers” topped dozens of other teams in a competition to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers.
West Virginia University’s robotics team “{Team Mountaineers” topped dozens of other teams in a competition to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers during the 2023 University Rover Challenge in Hanksville, Utah. The competition, with teams from 10 countries, was held May 31-June 3.
Stephen Jacobs, team lead and mechanical engineering graduate student, said the team of 75 undergraduate students and five graduate student mentors designed a rover capable of sample collection and analysis as well as autonomous navigation over rough terrain.
“There’s a science mission, this is a big focus of the Mars society, which is the whole reason that we send these rovers to Mars is to do as much science as we possibly can,” Jacobs said. “So we do soil collection onboard our rover, and then we do onboard spectrometry to try to analyze the soil samples for signs of life. Then the final competition for us, at least this year, was extreme delivery, which is driving across rugged terrain, and picking up larger objects and doing it over longer distances.”
According to Jacobs, after a 10th place finish last year the team was motivated to succeed this year.
“We said, ‘Next year, we can do it. There’s nothing stopping us from winning this challenge.’” he said. “So all over the last year, we’ve been working really hard, we’ve had a clear goal in mind, we’ve known what it’s taken. And then we went out and executed our plan, and everything sort of fell into place.”
Jacobs said the win represents a culmination of the work of hundreds of students since the team was founded six years ago.
“For the first three years, there was a lot of growth and development,” he said. “When you start a team with no background in robotics, you just have undergraduates who have the normal background of their classwork and maybe some other projects. There’s a ton to learn.”
The team has become a key part of Jacobs’ college experience since he joined his sophomore year.
“It’s something that has really been one of the cornerstones of my college life. It’s where I’ve met my best friends. It’s where I’ve spent all my time,” he said. “There are weeks where I’ve been in the lab 80 hours working on the robot with my friends. I’m really happy to be able to make this happen for all of the students who have graduated. They also, in the last two years, put their hearts and souls into it. And I’m just really proud for the whole team.”
Innovation met education on Career Technical Education Day at the West Virginia Legislature Friday.
Innovation met education on Career Technical Education Day at the West Virginia Legislature Friday.
From offering baked goods to analyzing biometrics, West Virginia students put on a 2023 vocational show.
You had to watch your step for all the robotic devices wheeling around the Capitol rotunda floor. More than 300 students from state high schools, comprehensive high schools and career technical education centers showcased their both practical and pioneering programs.
Deanna Canterbury-Penn, technical education coordinator for the West Virginia Department of Education, said the mission here is letting the lawmakers who decide on education funding see the career paths these students are pursuing for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
“Simulated workplaces are in every school for career technical education, so the students actually run companies in their prospective programs of study,” Canterbury-Penn said. “We want them to see that we are really making these kids’ careers and college ready to go out into the global workforce.”
What’s the difference between the shop and home economics classes of 25 years ago and what went on here today? The technological advances are obvious, but they say – don’t sell shop and home economics classes short.
“We have everything from robotics to aerospace engineering. It is a little bit different from the shop and home econ classes back when I was in school, but we still do those things with building construction and we have a lot of baking and pastry and ProStart,” Canterbury-Penn said. “They just really have enhanced the learning for the kids and really put them on the spot to do and be able to go out into the workforce to do these things.”
Enhancing the old and embracing the new, that’s what much of the day’s secondary education was all about, and was on display.
Many of West Virginia’s Congressional delegation were in Fairmont Monday morning to commemorate the state’s first high school robotics competition.
Many of West Virginia’s Congressional delegation were in Fairmont Monday morning to commemorate the state’s first high school robotics competition.
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin, as well as Rep. Carol Miller were at Fairmont State University Monday morning to cheer on high school teams from all over the state at the first West Virginia Robotics Championship.
“I’m really excited about what we see today,” Capito said. “The teams, they’re from all over the state, but they’re also different ages, and they’re also mixed boys and girls together. Everybody can participate here and mentor one another.”
Teamwork – both between humans and between humans and robots – was a focus of the comments delivered by Morgantown-born astronaut Andrew Morgan.
“Today, you’re here as a team, and you’ll win or lose as a team,” Morgan said. “But teams are made of great team players. As astronauts, we want crewmates that are great at being team players.”
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy was also on hand and highlighted the importance of robotics for upcoming lunar missions.
“What you’re doing today is incredibly important, because we’re going to do science differently on the surface of the moon,” Melroy said. “We think that the future of science in space is going to be human robotic teaming, meaning that you will work together with robots.”
This is the first year robotics is recognized as a high school co-curricular activity under the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission.
NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation program has been a vital part of some of its most high-profile missions into outer space since 1993. Located in Fairmont, the program has also been helping teachers and students across West Virginia through their Education Resource Center (ERC). More recently, the center has also begun organizing competitive robotics events for student clubs. Todd Ensign is the ERC’s program manager.
“Ten years ago, when we took on Lego League, there were probably 500 kids total involved in competitive robotics in West Virginia,” said Ensign. “Today, it’s like 5,000. So it’s a big change. And my team went from a single event that we managed, to now we manage over 40 events a year.”
Ensign estimates that in a regular year, the ERC helps around 1,000 teachers and from 12,000 to 16,000 kids. Barbara Pill is one of the many West Virginia teachers the center has worked with. Pill manages the STEM club at East Fairmont Middle School. She says the competitions are the main reason new students join her club each year.
“With the competitions, they have outreach,” said Pill. “And it starts with telling fellow students about it. So each year, I have students who hadn’t thought of being in STEM wanting to be in STEM because it sounds so cool, so much fun.”
East Fairmont Middle School science teacher Barbara Pill standing in front of her STEM club’s First LEGO League mats used for robotics competitions
By reaching out to the ERC, Pill was able to attend robotics workshops herself and bring back what she learned to her students. She was also able to use equipment the ERC loaned to her. Ensign calls this the “train-the-trainer” method.
“In this manner… we’re able to have, I think, the broadest possible impact and bring resources to parts of the state that wouldn’t otherwise…have access to them. Not every school can afford a $40,000 planetarium that they can bring in, or $20,000 classroom robots and iPads to program them with,” said Ensign.
One high school robotics team the ERC has helped is Morgantown’s Mountaineer Area Robotics, known as MARS for short. While not affiliated directly with the ERC, the center calls MARS its “house team.” It’s one of the robotics teams the ERC works closely with, and has helped mentor coaches like Paul Kritschgau.
“What they’ve done with me as a coach—I’ve never learned how to do a business plan for a coached team and things like that,” said Kritschgau. “So they’re helping support from the ground up. If you need help on a business plan for a particular aspect that you don’t have an expertise in, they can help you there.”
MARS is broken up into smaller groups that its members can join based on their interests. These include programming, electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing. Some students are even members of a group that handles the business and public outreach side of the team.
Ensign says he thinks the reason robotics has engaged so many students across West Virginia is because it aligns with the mentality of the state’s people.
“You know, if something is broken, we fix it. If a mining apparatus is damaged, we don’t have time to wait for a new part to come in from far away. We get in and work on it. And I think that that same ethic has played true in our competitive robotics teams from kindergarten all the way through college teams,” said Ensign.
Currently, the Education Resource Center is preparing to hold a student drone competition on February 25. The center says it is set to be one of the largest competitions of its kind in the country.
Robotics team competitions are now recognized as a high school co-curricular activity under the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission.
The designation was made official Nov. 1, and NASA’s Education Resource Center is leading the way. This gives students involved in robotics the same amount of recognition as varsity sports or other types of extracurricular clubs.
Program manager Todd Ensign says the program helps students develop STEM-related skills and team communication.
“It’s one of the most engaging ways to learn while having fun, so kids don’t even realize that they’re developing a tremendous amount of skills that are gonna help them with both academia as well as their future careers,” said Ensign. “It’s such a beneficial program that it seems unjust that many schools don’t have access to competitive robotics.”
NASA’s ERC program has supported STEM-related activities throughout West Virginia for years, via a grant from Fairmont State University. The program allows students to visit the ERC facility in Fairmont for hands-on activities. The program also supports STEM competitions like the Lego League Challenge and the VEX Robotics Competition — events that attract students across the state.
This new designation means more support for robotics programs statewide, including more participation and easier accessibility. Fairmont State program specialist Ryan Utzman says it also means it places West Virginia ahead of the curve.
“Over the past seven years, we’ve been working towards this. I think the first state that recognized robotics as an official activity was Minnesota,” said Utzman. “Over that period of time, six other states recognize that as an activity, but we’re still in the first 10.”
The first official robotics event is the state championship on May 16, 2022. It takes place on the Fairmont State University campus. Ensign says every high school in the state is invited to compete.
